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Thursday, July 11, 2013

Reveling In This Moment

Image courtesy of Microsoft Office Images

I feel like I am on a roll with my Jones family line lately. I know if you are into genealogy and are reading this right now that you can probably relate to what I am about to describe. You know how this whole thing is like a giant jig saw puzzle. You get different pieces to the puzzle at different times in your life. Some go together right away. Other pieces kind of remain scattered to the side waiting. They are waiting for additional information. Some important clue so you can finally say "A-ha! That's where this piece goes!" The connection becomes clear and you fit the piece into it's proper place. About a year ago, I connected with a Jones family cousin. I believe it was through Ancestry.com. Anyway we started to correspond via email and even spoke on the phone. She sent me pictures of her grandparents and of several other relatives. I enjoyed the pictures she had sent but I didn't see at the time how they truly fit into my large genealogy puzzle. Well, that's not exactly true. I saw where they fit but I didn't feel it. The pictures I had received hadn't become people yet. They were still just pictures. That's because I didn't know yet about the neighborhoods in which these ancestors lived, who they married, or where they went to school. I learned some had became dentists. Another was a fisherman and yet another had worked for the postal service. I didn't know that a year later, I would connect with another Jones cousin who would be searching for information on her grandfather and how it would turn out that her grandfather and this other cousin's grandfather were brothers. It all started to come together. These were my people and those pictures I spoke of before at last had taken on flesh.So with that being said, I am reveling in this moment of understanding and connection. I find myself smiling unconsciously as I sip on coffee and daydream about my ancestors.

5 comments:

Bernice, I know exactly how you feel, and it is such a wonderful feeling. I find that as I look back over data I collected earlier, I am finding so many clues and pieces, because I am more advanced in my abilities. Now I am focused this year on finally writing it all up, even though I know I will never be finished;)

I like your sentence, "I saw where they fit but I didn't feel it." That expresses the mystery of the difference between jigsaw pieces and people. So many layers within people, so many connections. Relationships that define people and fill them out. Like a jigsaw puzzle with more than 3 dimensions. That's really a wise sentence and blog post.

A Quote By Rumi

A Quote By Philip Carr-Gomm

When we know about our ancestors, when we sense them as living and as supporting us, then we feel connected to the genetic life-stream, and we draw strength and nourishment from this.

A Quote By Laurence Overmire

Over the course of the millennia, all these ancestors in your tree, generation upon generation, have come down to this moment in time to give birth to you. There has never been, nor will ever be another like you. You have been given a tremendous responsibility. You carry the hopes and dreams of all those who have gone before. Hopes and dreams for a better world. What will you do with your time on this Earth? How will you contribute to the ongoing story of humankind?